Ash's POV

"How long are we going to walk?" I whine. "These Pokeballs are getting pretty heavy."

"Suck it up," Lillie giggles.

Kukui wanted us to have all of our Pokémon there for the finals. I wish there was an easier way to carry them all around. Lillie wanted to get to the stadium really early and so early the sun still hasn't risen. Our destination was lighting up the sky with its blue colour.

"Almost there," I groan as I shift Lillie's duffel bag which I, yes I was carrying it. "So why did you want to come so early?"

"Just to see if you would get up," The evil Aether child laughs.

"Really?" I sigh.

"I just wanted our last morning walk to last a little longer," She smiles.

"Maybe it doesn't have to be our last..." I smile back.

"Do you hear that?" Lillie asks.

"Uhh no," I say as I perk up my hearing. The whole area was silent and no person of Pokémon was in sight.

"There," Lillie states. I shake my head, "Again."

"I heard it that time," I say and we run towards the sound. It was more of cry for help and I'm pretty sure it was a Pokémon.

"We've looked everywhere here," I state as we have thoroughly seen every centimetre of Fini stadium.

"But the Pokémon is still crying and it's getting louder," Lillie sighs.

"Did we check that alley?" I question and point to a dark entrance that was between the box stairway and the stadium.

"How'd we miss that?" Lillie says and we quickly run over.

It was sight I've seen way too many times. A Pokémon tied to a stick except this time the Pokémon was injured badly. Lillie hurriedly unties it and the Pokémon jumped into her arms crying into her chest.

Lillie slowly got the female Pokémon to calm down just like a mother would a child. "You'd be great mother," I laugh as I crouch down beside the two.

"I don't know Ash," Lillie giggles as her face went bright red. "But I also don't know why we keep finding Pokémon in bad situations."

"Maybe we were meant to find them," I shrug.

"Maybe we were..." Lillie sighs.

Kukui's POV

Just a few moments until the grand trial battle...

"Why is Gladion up here?" Ash asks as he walks in and sees us getting ready.

"I needed a second announcer," I laugh. His face was filled with so much confusion that it even managed to make Gladion laugh.

"You'll see," Gladion says.

"Let's get this started," I suggest. Every single seat of the stadium was filled with people of all ages. Just another check mark on the success of this tournament.

"Welcome," Gladion boomed into the microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen, I know you all can't wait to see the two finalists battle it out!"

I waited for the noise to die down. "But we will be having an appetizer battle first." There was a mix of curiosity, excitement and confusion in the crowd.

"And it will feature the Kahuna of Ula'Ula island!" Gladion yells. The crowd went wild at the fact that they were going to see a rare battle from Nanu. The Aether son was getting pretty into all of this. Either he is really into the intense battles that are about to happen. Or at the fact that Ash could get embarrassed in front of Lillie. I have a feeling Ash could get blown out and it wouldn't matter to her.

"But it will also be a grand trial battle!" I add. "And that's not all..."

"This trainer is supposed to be pretty good at battling but I've never seen him battle in a normal battle!" Gladion announces. "He's pretty dumb but maybe he has a chance."

"Nanu's opponent is the one and only... Ash Ketchum!" I cheer.

Ash's POV

"We nailed that," Gladion laughs.

"Am I actually battling?" I ask confused.

"I'd hurry up and get down there," Kukui laughs as well.

A few moments later I was staring across the battlefield at Nanu. I've been wanting to see how strong he is and I get to do it in front of thousands...

"Wait I don't have any Pokémon on me," I realize. "Ohhhh, that's why Kukui wanted all my Pokémon here in the stands."

"This will be a 3 on 3 battle," The referee announces. "No substitutions for this single battle. Please release your first Pokémon."

"Sableye," Nanu mutters. Tough act or scared of such a large crowd. The purple dark and ghost type came out eerily. He made a creepy laugh as his diamond like eyes spun around. The red gem on his chest glowed slightly. I'm going to regret this...

"Pikachu you currently have an 0-1 record in this stadium," I laugh. "But you need to redeem yourself for your girlfriend so I choose you."

The yellow mouse came running up to me with a smile on his face. But that smile turned into a smirk and the next thing I know is that a large amount of electricity is going through my body. I fall over comically before sticking up a thumbs up.

"Get out there," I sigh as I start to get up. I take a good look at the field in front of me. It was dark and gloomy and even had a weird black aura radiating in some spots. Definitely made for a battle like this.

"Ready to go?" I ask. Nanu continued to stare at me as if he's trying to see right through me.

"Battle begin!" The referee yells.

"Power gem," Nanu orders. Sableye held his arms up high and the rock about the size of himself formed. The rock was thrown right at Pikachu but he simply dodged to the left.

"Quick attack," I command. Nanu didn't utter a counterattack as Pikachu dashed toward the ghost and dark type. Ghost type... "Pikachu get out of there!"

It was too late as Sableye blew Pikachu back with a quick shadow ball. Oops...

"Again," Nanu orders.

"Not this time," I mutter. "Catch it with an electro ball."

This was going to be hard for Pikachu to pull off. One wrong move and it literally blows up in his face. Pikachu waited while slowly charging up the electric sphere on his tail. The ghostly sphere quickly changed direction by a swooping zig zag tail. The purple was gradually mixing with the yellow and the new move was created.

"Electighosty ball!" I yell. I look over to see Lillie facepalming while giggling slightly. The small white Pokémon in her arms was throwing her arms up wildly too. It's nice to see that the Pokémon was happier than when we found her. I give them both a big smile and Lillie shakes her head at me.

"Ash you should stick to creating the moves while Lillie can name them," Gladion laughs over the speakers. Why Lillie? She is good at pretty much anything so that's probably why I guess...

Despite the jokes the attack was able to hit Sableye who I think was laughing himself. He was knocked back but Nanu didn't miss a beat. "Again."

I watch Sableye charge up another shadow ball and I don't know if I should try the same tactic. That could be what Nanu is expecting though...

"Pikachu use thunderbolt!" I command. The electric attack zipped through the shy and met a pretty powerful shadow ball in between the two Pokémon. "Follow with volt tackle!"

Pikachu started to get surrounded by electricity as he slowly started running towards Sableye. He did this while managing to explode the ghost type attack.

The cloud of smoke glowed a faint yellow as Pikachu charged through. Nanu seemed to accept that Sableye was done for because no defence was ordered. Pikachu made contact and kept going, Sableye was completely steamrolled. "Sableye is unable to battle. Please let out your next Pokémon."

"Krokorok," Nanu throws the ultra ball into the sky. The ground and dark type came out with his arms crossed and ready to go. The black stripes went down his whole brown back and extended down his long spiky tail. His pink stomach brightened the whole picture and the sunglasses shaped eyes really finished off the look.

"Pikachu get in there with iron tail," I order. Nanu smirked even though this attack should do lots of damage.

"Crunch."

Okay bite Pikachu's tail if you want a mouth full of broken teeth. That wasn't what he did though...

Pikachu did his usual flip to show off and it worked. He was able to come straight down on top of the sand crocodile. But Krokorok's quick jaw movements were enough to stop the mouse from escaping. Pikachu was trying everything to get out but being unable to use electric type attacks was limiting our options.

"Throw him down and use earthquake," Nanu commands. Pikachu had no time to recover from the former attack and the earthquake made him look like he was being popped like popcorn kernel. He bounced along the battlefield until the shaking stopped and an unconscious Pokémon was laying there. "Umbreon can you come get him please?" I ask. She hurriedly ran down and used psychic to take him to our reserved section. The referee already called for my next Pokémon but I don't know who to use.

"Scrafty I choose you!" I yell towards the stands. He looked kind of surprised to be picked but jumped out onto the field quickly anyways. He is way taller than he used to be and looks way more like a fighter.

"Assurance," Nanu says like he knows the outcome of this matchup.

"High jump kick!" I yell. Scrafty meg Krokorok head on and the glowing red knee powered through the dark type move. It wasn't enough to finish but I know what can. "Follow with a drain punch."

And that was it for the Unova Pokemon. The two super effective moves were enough to propel Scrafty to victory. A quick battle sets up what should be an easy win for me. But let's see...

"Persian!" Nanu yells as the referee finishes his little part in the battle. The police detective seems to be getting more and more into this. I can't wait to see how the rest of this battle goes.

"Scrafty use crunch," I order.

"Fake out and then power gem," Nanu commands.

A pair of hands stopped Scrafty in his tracks. He flinched so hard he couldn't dodge the power gem attack. One hit the face was all it took to get my hyper fighting type back on his feet and ready to go.

The round faced cat Pokémon was standing there perfectly fine before falling down. "Take advantage and use high jump kick!" I yell. Scrafty's knee became as hot as fire and he lunged toward the opposing Pokémon. Suddenly the Alolan Persian smirked and dodged.

"Dark pulse," Nanu smirks. The beam of dark spirals was enough to finish the battle.

"Good job Scrafty," I say as he slowly picks himself up. He trudged back to the stands. I could tell he was mad he lost but he did win one battle. "Who should I use this time?"

I look up and scan through our Pokémon. I could go for type advantage or maybe one that could use some more experience... "Passiman I choose you."

The monkey Pokemon strolled onto the field while doing some dribbling work with his lime green ball. "Passiman use energy ball."

The green spherical attack was easily formed and shot towards Persian. "Dodge and use crunch," Nanu orders. The cat was too fast for Passiman's attack and he was closing in.

"Beat up!" I yell. I'm not really familiar with this attack so let's see what it does...

One punch came out of nowhere and knocked Persian to the side. Another one came and furthered the damage. Then another followed by another until over 80 punches landed and knocked out the Persian.

"Umm," I chuckle lightly. "Was that supposed to happen?"

"Beat up is an attack that will throw a punch for each Pokémon in your party," Nanu laughs for the first time not sarcastically. "And since you have no limit it counted for every Pokémon in your possession."

"I may have to keep myself from using that move," I laugh.

At that moment the crowd realized the battle was over and started cheering. "It was a good battle," Nanu smirks.

"Not bad," I agree. "I think we were a pretty good setup for the finals."

"Don't forget to cheer on your lady," Nanu smirks.

________________________

I just keep dragging on this tournament lol.

Anyways thanks for reading and apparently you guys got this book pretty high up some of the rankings. Thank you everybody.

Also a happy birthday to R0ck3t_FiRe .

See you next chapter where we will see who comes out on top and also what the prize is.

And what Pokémon did they find???